Saturday’s Minnesota sports fan had a schedule to love with
all teams in action and It started early at 11am with the Gophers basketball
team in Purdue and the day ended with the Timberwolves in Denver for a 8 pm
start.
It is unfortunate the Gophers struggled once again on the
road today. The big win at home vs. Indiana followed by a dominating win once
again at home vs. Purdue only to end with 2 road losses.
The team finally hit the .500 record in conference after the
Penn State win only to end with an 8-10 record and falling to a 9th
seed in next week’s Big Ten Tourney in Chicago.
The hopes we as fans have it is a neutral sight game the
rest of the way with anything possible. It is the one hope I have left to hang
onto. I really felt the way this team started out playing well in the non-conference
and then to start the Big Ten schedule 3-0 including a win at home vs. Michigan
State and a road win in Illinois I really thought we were on our way.
Let’s hope things go well next week and although I have read
the Gophers will be in the Big Dance but if they can’t get things turned around
who knows?
The Minnesota Wild come into Nashville Saturday night with
road wins hard to come by. It is Ryan Suter’s return back to Nashville where he
played 7 seasons. How will the emotion affect both teams?
As a Minnesota fan losing the likes of Kevin Garnett, Torri
Hunter, Marion Gaborik and more I understand when a star comes back home.
It was nice to see the Wild score on a power play and who
gets an assists? Ryan Suter assists on the goal by Zach Parise.
Suter took a penalty and Nashville scored the tie breaker. I
was concerned that Nashville would take this energy boost after the goal. Suter’s
home coming 1 assist and one penalty and also seemed to take a lot of late hits
from his ex-teammates. It was nice to see the Wild come to Suter’s defense.
Wild Goalie Nicklas Backstom came up huge Saturday
especially after his last start ended early as he was benched in the Chicago
game. It was huge to see his confidence did not seem shaken.
The game went into overtime with no scoring setting up the shootout.
Matt Cullen and Mikko Koivu came through beating a goalie who is 6’4” with beautiful
goals. What an important 2 points the team got on the road and now return home
Sunday vs. the first place, Vancouver Canucks. The Excel Energy Center will be
rocking Sunday night.
The Minnesota Timberwolves played in Denver and were down by
only one at half. I was feeling good that Minnesota may steal one on the road.
The wheels fell off quickly late 3rd quarter and
the rest of the game. It is amazing how a deficit of 6 can go to almost 20 in a
short span.
Nugget’s have 2 ex-Timberwolves players Corey Brewer, 7th
pick in the 2007 draft and Ty Lawson, 18th pick in the 2009 draft. A note on Lawson even though the Wolves drafted him the team did a same night trade with the Denver.
The Nuggets scored 111 for the game and of that Brewer had
15 and Lawson 32 combing for 47 of the 111 which is 42 percent of the team’s
total. Ex-Minnesota players come to haunt a team again.
The game on Saturday marked the one year anniversary in
which Ricky Rubio went down for the season at home against the LA Lakers.
The season has had more downs than ups but the one positive
is the play of Ricky Rubio.
The Vikings have Adrian Peterson go down for the season only
to come back 9 yards shy of the all-time rushing mark and now Rubio is getting
closer to his first triple double seemingly every night after last year’s
season ending injury. These 2 men are an inspiration to people who work hard
and have desire will be successful.
The Wolves on the road late in Denver add in daylight
savings time must return home Sunday with a game against Dallas followed by
Tuesday home against San Antonio Spurs.
I am hoping Sunday is a sweep for the Minnesota teams with
the Wild and Timberwolves both at home.
Thanks for reading
Purplestick
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